As the global pandemic of COVID-19 quickly spreads, it is impacting everyone around the globe. The government of Mauritius has followed the global trend and decided to proceed with the lock down of the country. As the situation continues to develop at an increased pace, we wanted to reach out and update you on how we’re supporting our employees and you — our customers and partners - in these difficult times.

• Stocks saw historic gains in November and continued to push higher this week in a rally tied largely to optimism over progress toward COVID-19 vaccines, with investors looking past a sharp rise in new cases and deaths over the same period.
• In economic policy, talks on a COVID-19 relief package are gaining moment in the US supported by the weaker-than-expected November jobs.
• Vaccine-related stocks made waves this week with Pfizer shares gaining following authorization of its BioNTech partnered coronavirus vaccine in the UK Wednesday but Moderna shares fell Thursday after it said its COVID-19 vaccine candidate has potential to confer longer-term immunity.
• On Friday, Tesla shares outperformed the market but demonstrated mixed performance when compared to some of its competitors.
• In Europe, markets finished broadly higher with shares in London leading the region led by oil and gas stocks which climbed after OPEC+ members agreed on production cuts.
• In commodities, crude futures gained after OPEC+ agreed to curb production while gold futures ended lower but posted a weekly gain.
• In currencies, the USD shed 1.2 percent against a basket of its peers this week, bringing its decline for the year to more than 6 percent as the EUR and GBP gained.